Copyfight: the Politics of IP

The Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act (DCIMA, H.R. 3261) extends extremely broad copyright-like protections to collections of factual data–data like the price of a TV, the temperature in Arizona or information collected during scientific research. DCIMA would allow companies to sue anyone who interferes with their ability to profit from data that they collect. In other words, academic researchers, public libraries, Internet innovators and other database users would have to pay up if someone else claims to have assembled the data first.

Caveat Lector:HR 3261

Guess whose lobbyists are part of the engine behind this madness. No, go on, guess, it�s not hard.

Elsevier. Told you it wouldn�t be hard. Yet another reason to hope libraries get involved with publishing and full-text databases. Yet another reason to pray for open access.

Just when you think corporations couldn’t get greedier and government couldn’t get stupider.